Salem's Lot (Full Frame)

VHS, 112 minutes, WARNER

With "Salem's Lot: The Movie," a blood-curdling shocker based on the novel by Stephen King ("Carrie," "The Shawshank Redemption"), director Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Poltergeist") sends the time-honored vampire legend soaring on bat wings into the modern era. Sinister events bring together a writer (David Soul) fascinated with an old hilltop house, a suave antiques dealer (James Mason) whose expertise goes beyond bric-a-brac and the dealer's mysterious, pale-skinned "partner." The solid supporting cast of vampire victims and fighters includes Bonnie Bedelia, Lew Ayres, Elisha Cook, Ed Flanders, George Dzundza, Lance Kerwin, Geoffrey Lewis and Marie Windsor. It's hard to keep the undead down. And so easy to be scared in Salem's Lot.